New $1.8 million paper recycling facility coming to Alabama

MONTGOMERY (Scrap Monster): Recycling Management Resources (RMR) has announced plans to build a new paper recycling facility in Barton, Alabama. This will be the company’s sixth location. The company plans to bring in recyclable materials from various sources, which will then be sorted and made available to companies that make use of waste paper.

The proximity of the proposed plant to SCA’a tissue mill presents the company with the unique opportunity to boost the supply of recovered fiber, including sorted office waste and old corrugated. It must be noted that the company is presently the primary supplier to the tissue mill.

According to RMR press release, the facility will be built in the old UCM Magnesia building at 510 Mulberry Lane in Charlie Hovater's Sixth District, which is just outside the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park. The company has acquired a 50,000-square-foot idled plant and has added another 20,000 square feet to the facility. It plans to make an investment of around $1.8 million, which includes $560,000 for facility improvements and the balance $1.3 million for purchase of equipment, including baler, roll cutters and shredders. The recycling facility would incorporate high-tech systems to sort the different recyclable products. The new facility will also have direct rail access, which is expected to cut transportation costs significantly.

In order to assist the project, the Colbert County Commissioners have approved tax abatement of $24,089 in non-educational ad valorem and sales taxes over a 10-year period. Colbert County attorney Edgar Black noted that the taxes being abated would be for the purchase of equipment and additions to the existing building. Meantime, Shoals Economic Development Authority Executive Director Forrest Wright noted that RMR will have to continue paying the taxes on the building and property.

RMR’s Barton, Alabama facility is expected to create nearly 23 jobs over a period of three years, sources indicated.

Recently, the City of Montgomery had signed an agreement to acquire the Materials Recycling Facility and an adjacent lot from IREP for a sum of $625,000 and “other consideration”. The City had stated that it will find an organization capable of resuming the operations at the facility. IREP had opened the facility in 2014, but could not make profit from operations due to plunge in prices of reclaimed material in the commodity market. Consequently, the facility was closed in October 2015.

Recycling Management Resources is a plant based recycling group focused on maximizing its client’s revenue generation from recyclable paper, plastic and metal scrap. It specializes in setting up industrial programs for segregation, collection and movement of recyclable materials throughout North America and Europe with networks and customers all over the world. The company has plant locations in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Raleigh and High Point, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky. RMR also specializes in setting up commercial office recycling programs.

Recycling Management Resources is majority owned by Wilmington Paper Corp. and is responsible for recycling of over 700,000 tons of scrap materials every year.